I was not treated fairly by the NPP - Socrate Safo

Veteran filmmaker and staunch NPP member Socrate Safo has opened up about the circumstances surrounding his removal as Director of the National Commission on Culture.

He revealed he only found out he had been replaced when a stranger showed up at his office with an appointment letter.

"I went to the office on a fine Wednesday. I went to a programme, I got back, and there was the director for planning and monitoring, who came to my office and said an elderly woman had been here. She said she's been appointed as the new director. He told her we have one here. She said, well, she has a letter," Safo recounted on the 'Gentlemen and Gentlemen' podcast with Arnold Asamoah Baidoo.

Asked whether he felt the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had treated him fairly, Safo replied, "To be straight, I'll say no. I wasn't treated fairly.”

He, however, said that he remains loyal to the party despite the ill-treatment.

“My party, right or wrong, I will stand by my party. What hurts is the fact that I couldn't fix the challenges of this industry because I wasn't given the opportunity," he said.

According to Safo, his regret wasn’t the fact that he was dismissed abruptly or even the fact that he served without a salary, but the unfinished business of an industry he has dedicated his life to.

Narrating what prompted his entry into politics, Safo pointed to years of frustration attending meetings with ministers who he felt did not understand the creative arts sector.

I played a part in destroying Ghana’s movie industry - Socrate Safo confesses

He singled out James Agyenim Boateng and Stan Dogbe as rare exceptions of men who genuinely engaged with industry practitioners.

“He was going around with us physically on sets. I realised that he's doing so because he understands the industry, because he's from the industry. That is why I took an interest in getting into politics," he explained.

Safo said he saw his eventual appointment as a small but significant window he could use to drive meaningful change for Ghana's creative arts industry. But that did not work out for him.

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